| Source | ‘Obituary: Sir Hubert Worthington, RA, FRIBA’, Extract from The Builder, 02/08/1963 in: CWGC Archive, T 317 - Sir J.H. Worthington, OBE, RA, MA, FRIBA - Principal Architect, 15/07/1943 – 06/01/1986; CWGC Archive, T 317 - Sir J.H. Worthington, OBE, RA, MA, FRIBA - Principal Architect, 15/07/1943 – 06/01/1986 |
| Biographical Note | Sir John Hubert Worthington RA was a British architect and the Commission's Principal Architect for North Africa and Egypt for the Second World War.
He was born on 4 July 1886. He was the younger son of the late Thomas Worthington and the brother of Sir Percy Worthington, to whom he would be articled to at the beginning of his career. He was educated at Sedburgh and the Manchester University of Architecture, of which he was the first student to qualify. He qualified as ARIBA just before the First World War and worked as an assistant in the office of Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1914.
During the First World War, Worthington served in the 16th Bn., Manchester Regiment as a Captain. In 1923, he became Professor of Architecture at the Royal College of Art (subsequently making him hon. ARCA) and he lectured at Oxford University and Hull during the 1930’s.
On 26 July 1943, Hubert Worthington was appointed the Commission’s Principal Architect for its 1939-1945 War Cemeteries and Memorials to the Missing in North Africa and Egypt. Following his appointment, he began an arduous tour of all cemeteries from the Canal Zone to Algeria, lasting for seven weeks. In 1945, Worthington visited Malta to select a site and prepare a design for the Malta Memorial, which he completed. He undertook a second tour to Egypt and North Africa in 1947, when he was accompanied by Lady Worthington. This was followed by further tours of inspection in 1953 and 1956 as well as in Tunisia in 1957, at the time of the unveiling of the memorial at Medjez-el-Bab.
In 1954, he as present at the unveiling of the El Alamein Memorial, which he designed, along with the war cemetery. On 31 December 1955, he relinquished his appointment as Principal Architect but maintained an active interest and freely advised the Commission’s officials until his death.
Worthington was also involved with many restoration projects, such as the old Bodleian library and the Radcliffe Camera at Oxford, as well as restoring Manchester Cathedral after it sustained damage during the Second World War. He was the architect for the repair of Kings Bench Walk and the rebuilding of the Inner Temple Hall, and also restored the great parlour of Merchant Taylors’ Hall.
He was knighted in 1949. In 1955, he was elected a Royal Academician.
Sir Hubert Worthington died on 26 July 1963, twenty years after he had started working for the Commission. He was aged 77. |